GEIS-新闻详情

Indian citizens make up 1 in 10 US visa applicants in 2023, 60% rise from 2022

2024-01-30 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-世界原网页

One in 10 applications for United States visas came from citizens of India in 2023 – a 60 per cent increase compared with 2022 – as the American embassy and consulates in India processed a record-high number of visas.

Indian daily Deccan Herald reported on Jan 30 that the US embassy in New Delhi and the consulates in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad processed 1.4 million visas in 2023.

Describing the demand as “unprecedented”, the embassy said there were more than 700,000 applications for visitor visas in 2023, the second-highest number of applications in its history.

Travellers from some countries visiting the US for reasons such as business or tourism need to obtain a visitor visa. They are not allowed to use this visa to stay in America for, say, employment or education.

To meet the surge in visa demand, the embassy and consulates boosted the number of staff in Mumbai for three months in early 2023 and improved technical processes.

These resulted in a decrease in wait times for visitor visa interviews from an average of 1,000 days to 250 days.

More than 140,000 student visas were issued by the US consular team in India in 2023, more than any other country in the world, putting India at the top for the third year in a row.

Indian citizens currently make up over a quarter of more than one million foreign students studying in the US, and are the largest group of international graduate students in the country.

The US embassy said issuing employment visas continues to be a top priority. In 2023, processing of petition-based visas – when employers in the US file employment-based petitions to hire a foreign worker – was consolidated in Chennai and Hyderabad to improve efficiency, which allowed the embassy to minimise visa appointment wait times.

The embassy added that it continues to explore ways to provide more efficient services, such as the opening of a US$340 million (S$455.3 million) facility in Hyderabad in March 2023 and two new consulates in Ahmedabad and Bangalore, as well as the permanent assignment of more consular officers in India.